Airbag supplemental restraint systems (SRS) have become increasingly pervasive because of their ability to protect vehicle occupants from serious injury in the event of a collision. A typical airbag system has an airbag, an inflation device, and a crash sensor that detects a sudden deceleration of the vehicle. In order to prevent accidental or unwanted airbag inflation, airbag systems generally require a high safety integrity level to prevent accidental or unwanted airbag inflation. One way to maintain a high safety integrity level is to use multiple sensors. For example, a typical side impact airbag system has a pressure sensor inside a car door, and an accelerometer located in a pillar next to the car door. If the pressure sensor measures a sudden rise in pressure at the same time the accelerometer detects an acceleration, the SRS system deploys the side impact airbag. By setting proper timing and amplitude conditions for the pressure sensor and accelerometer, the airbag is deployed in the event of a collision, but not from a vibration caused by a person closing the door, for example.
Another important issue regarding SRS systems is maintaining a high level of signal integrity with respect to the sensor data transmission channel. In some SRS systems, crash sensors that are remotely located in various portions of the vehicle are coupled to controller via a digital interface. In order to maintain a high safety integrity level with respect to the transmitted sensor data, various data error detection measures are used to prevent airbag deployment in the presence of noise and disturbance to the sensor data lines.